Tom Hanks - Tom Hanks Talks Twitter At Yale University

The Forrest Gump star was asked to address the class of 2011 at a special ceremony on the eve of the prestigious Connecticut school's annual commencement.

The 54-year-old actor, who is a big fan of Twitter.com, used his time onstage to encourage students to embrace modern technology and even showed off his own cell phone.

He told the crowd, "Please do not turn off your electronic devices. Leave your iPhones, your iPads, your Sidekicks, your Droids, your Blackberrys powered up - recording, photographing, texting out all that emerges from this stage over the next few minutes. Later on today, you can compare your 'Tweets' and your Facebook comments with those of others to figure out if anything memorable went down."

Hanks later took to his Twitter page after speaking at Class Day, during which students are encouraged to wear funny and outlandish hats.

He 'Tweeted', "Yale is one fine Junior College. Great hats and an honour to be there."